Speaking at the start of the Communications Management Association’s annual conference, today, Carolyn Kimber identified the link between the national imperative for sustained economic growth and the essential infrastructure for enterprise.

The need for a massive increase in investment in local broadband access networks was, she said, ‘blindingly obvious’ and “the UK should not be crawling along the hard shoulder or pottering in the slow lane of broadband quality”

Pointing out that 98% of UK businesses employ fewer than 50 people but "it is from within their ranks that we can see the greatest potential for innovation and economic growth – and the greatest potential for exploiting fully-fibred local access networks".

Carolyn Kimber said “It should not be an uphill battle to get policy makers and regulators to understand that the needs of business customers are pre-eminent in the digital agenda”.

Having sign-posted that every part of the CMA’s annual conference related to economic growth and societal development objectives, several subsequent speakers linked their remarks to the opening keynote address and under-scored the theme that high quality, fully-fibred access networks are part of the essential infrastructure for enterprise.